


From That Far (Jace/Anna)

by orphan_account



Category: Jace Taer, Jace Taer Chronicles, lonewolfsniper44
Genre: Angst, Anthro, Breakup, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-12-15 20:09:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/853557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna and Jace reflect on what was, what could have been, and what still could be. Song is “From That Far” from the album of the same title, by Erica Wheeler.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From That Far (Jace/Anna)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Jace Taer Chronicles](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/23680) by lonewolfsniper44. 



Title: From That Far  
Fandom: Michael O’s world with Jace and Anna. I love these characters so much, I just had to write about them. Hats off to Michael and his characters and their world!   
Pairings: Jace/Anna  
Genre: Songfic/Romance/Angst/Fluff  
Words: ~3350  
Warnings: Angst, some cussing, fluffy ending  
Rating: PG-13 for battle scenes and, uh Jace’s language.

Summary: Anna and Jace reflect on what was, what could have been, and what still could be. Song is “From That Far” from the album of the same title, by Erica Wheeler. 

 

“From That Far”

***

Anna

I listened hard so I would hear  
Those things you might not say  
Cause even though we were close  
Sometimes you were light-years away

That scoundrel. That absolute scoundrel. There’s no other word for Jace Taer. 

Well, maybe a few other words, and I can’t say I wasn’t the one who called him a few of them - especially that last night. I think that playboy, heartbreaker, and bastard were the choice ones I used. Maybe others. It’s hard to remember; it was a haze of pain and anger on my part. No fury like a woman scorned, right? You’ve heard the saying. And it’s true.

But there’s also no pain like a woman scorned, really. As I lie there in my apartment above the Glass Half Full, I press a hand to my heart and let out a little sigh. Not a contented sigh, and sure as hell not a dreamy sigh. It’s the sound of letting out a breath you don’t know you’re holding, when your chest clenches around your heart as if to hold back the pain. I close my eyes and let it go. You have to let yourself feel it. There’s no other way to move on. 

***

Jace

Wish I may, wish I might  
Catch you fallin’ through the night  
Well, even stars that fall down  
Well, they’re gone when they hit ground

A battlefield is not a good place for me to be right now, but it kind of comes with the mercenary territory. I club the last Grojian with the butt of my blaster rifle and stare down at him, chest heaving. I don’t know whether he’s dead or just out cold.

I shudder as I realize that in this moment, I don’t really care.

When did I become such a cold-blooded killing machine? I think it was that night, when I made a choice I wasn’t ready to make. 

I made the right decision. I know that. 

So why am I so furious with myself? I made the only choice I could make. Anna wanted commitment. She wanted a life with me. I’d give that girl anything in the Galaxy, but there are a few things I can’t give - not to anyone. One of them is a normal life, a happy, contented, safe life. That’s what Anna deserves. 

“Taer! You awake back there?”

I glance up at the commander. Micah Coran is one of us, a collie, but built like a tank - definitely not the fine-boned collie types you usually see. He’s a damn good commander, too; he won’t tolerate anything but the best, and he never leaves a man behind. 

“I’m here,” I growl. 

“We’re moving up. Get your tail in gear and don’t fall behind.”

I nod and start moving with the ragtag regiment. Most of us are mercenaries. I find myself wondering how many of these guys have a girl back home. I know none of them could measure up to the girl who was waiting for me.

And to me you were always shining  
Like those silver-blue stars  
And I guess  
Some things are more beautiful  
When you see them from that far

Was waiting. Was. Past tense. Not now. Now, we’re just…what? Exes? Once-friends? Lovers from another lifetime? I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to think about her.

We make camp near a river. Some of the soldiers have set up water purifiers, and once they’ve filled a few canteens, I gulp down so much so fast that I have to stop myself before I get sick. Just trying to wash away the taste of blood and the faint traces of war. War has a taste, and it’s not pleasant. Sweat. Blood. Blaster powder. Vaporized flesh. It’s salty and metallic and it tastes like death.

We settle down for the night, pitching lean-tos and trying to rest. None of us will sleep well tonight. Well, except for Cassidy; he’ll sleep - and snore like a Hutt all night, no doubt. I groan and roll over.

Micah is bedded down near me. “Hey. Jace.”

I glance up. Micah and I have worked together before, and we have an agreement that we use surnames in battle, but first names when it’s personal. “Yeah?”

“You got someone waiting for you?”

Oh, he would ask about that. 

“You had that, uh, that shepherd girl, right? What was her name? Amy? Annie?”

I just give him silence. Maybe he’ll get the picture.

“Jace?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I mutter, and pull my sleeping bag over my head.

***

Anna

Don’t know why you try to hide it  
When it’s revealed so clear at night  
Well, with your beauty and your sorrow  
It was all of you I liked

Jace was beautiful. 

I’m up now, looking around my room. Between the photos of me with friends and the fashion posters Cera is always bringing me, there are a few snapshots of me with Jace. I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t know why I’m looking at them. I just am, even though even one glimpse of his rugged face or his cockeyed grin sends pain shooting through my chest.

Maybe I’m a masochist.

He was a sensitive soul. Strange thing to say about a mercenary, but it’s true. I’ll never forget those nights when he wound up in my bed and, after we’d gone to sleep, he woke thrashing and screaming, remembering the things he’d seen, the things he’d done. 

He cried. I’d never tell a single soul, but he did. 

He didn’t want me to share that pain, I realize as I look at a holo I took of him years back. He’s sitting at the bar at the Glass Half Full, staring into space, trademark glass of whiskey in one hand. There’s something bittersweet in his expression. He didn’t want me to go through what he goes through.

I clutch the holo to my chest. Oh, Jace, don’t you know by now that I’d go through it all with you? All of it. I don’t care how horrible it is as long as I’m with you.

Wish I may, wish I might  
Catch you fallin’ through the night  
Well, even stars that fall down  
Well, they’re gone when they hit ground

The tears start anew and I collapse into my bed, sobs shuddering through my body, the picture still pressed against me. He thought he was doing the right thing. He was trying to be kind. Trying to protect little ol’ me. Jace is like that. He’s a gentleman - no, more than that. He’s a truly decent man. And no, I don’t care what they say about half-wolves. He doesn’t have a savage bone in his body.

Jace, you absolute idiot. Stop trying to protect me. I’m a big girl. I know what I’d be getting into. And I don’t care. I’d go through all of it if it was with you. 

And in that moment, I know it’s not just a fleeting, impulsive thought. It’s the truth. It’s not like I haven’t known hardship in my life. True, I’ve never been through the things Jace deals with on an everyday basis, but I’ve been through rougher things than even Jace knows. I’ve lost people to war, to poverty, to the worst things in this Galaxy. 

Now I’ve lost Jace. And I’m not even sure how.

***

Jace

And to me you were always shining  
Like those silver-blue stars  
And I guess  
Some things are more beautiful  
When you see them from that far

I go through the motions the next day. We reach our destination - a hideout of the Grojian terrorist sect we’re fighting - and we start out through the hidden tunnels into the compound. I tell myself I’ve got a good reason for doing this, for fighting, for surviving. 

I just can’t think of it right now.

The moment we come out of the tunnels into the compound, there’s blaster fire raining down on us. I let out a growl that’s half shock and half rage as I watch the men beside me gunned down in moments. Some will live. Some will pull through, but with the loss of a leg or a hand. Others - the ones I try not to look at or think about - will leave more girls on more distant planets to cry and ask the Universe why.

I refuse to do that to Anna.

I made the right decision. I did, damn it.

Micah pulls us back into a corner, and I can see nothing but defiance in his eyes. In all the campaigns I’ve been on with Micah, surrender has never been an option. It’s not just that he’d rather not go through being interrogated and probably tortured; it’s his pride. Either Micah Coran wins the day, or Micah Coran goes down fighting.

Somehow we end up back to back. That’s the way I like it. There’s really no other man I’d rather have at my back.. “Nice ending, huh?” he shouts to me over his shoulder.

“Yeah. Lovely,” I snarl back.

“You tell your girl you love her?”

I hesitate for the briefest moment. The question runs through my mind.

Did I tell her? After she asked me for what I couldn’t give her, after that last fight, before I left - did I tell her?

Suddenly there’s a lump in my throat. No. No, I didn’t.

Micah reads the answer from my silence. “Ah, you’ll tell her when we get back,” he says casually.

And suddenly it hits me. That’s why I’m fighting. That’s why we’ve got to win this campaign. Not because of any promise or any pact - no, I refused to make that promise. It’s just because I can’t leave something like that unsaid. 

I spot the Grojian commander and smirk. I jab Micah in the side, and he glances at me. 

“Cover me,” I say before charging straight into the fray. 

***

Anna

Well my love it just grew deeper  
Crossed that line and asked for more  
I still wonder what we could have been  
And I try to love you where you are

I don’t know why I asked him.

I didn’t ask him for a ring. I didn’t ask him for pups. I didn’t ask him to settle down in some nice town with me. I just asked what he wanted with us, where he thought this thing was going. Long-term. 

When he said he couldn’t commit, yeah, I was angry at first. Furious, really. I called him a playboy and a heartbreaker and a bastard and I threw him out of my bar. But now, thinking on it, lying in bed like a lovesick teenage girl, I know why he did it.

He did it to protect me.

I find myself wondering: What if he had said yes? What if he had married me? What could we have been? I smile sadly to myself. We could have been amazing. 

Not much would have changed, of course. I would still work at the bar, still live here; Jace would still be a mercenary and still be here one day and gone the next. But I’d have his word that he would always come home to me. And he’d have my word that he would never find me shacking up with anyone else.

He’d also have my heart. But it seems he has that regardless.

The tears seem to be over now, and I drag myself out of bed and put the holo back on the wall. Maybe later I’ll tear them up…no, just stash them in a shoebox somewhere. But for now, I’m leaving them. I’m not ready to let them go.

I go to the bathroom to wash my face and take a good hard look at myself. My fur is mussed and streaked with tears, and my ears are drooping. I scrub at my face until it looks fresh, if still a little sad. Some jewelry, maybe some earrings, will spruce me up sufficiently for work.

When I walk into the bar, Cera frowns at me. “You okay, hon?” she asks.

I shrug. “Fine. Why?”

“You look like…” She waves a hand. “Never mind.”

“What? Like I’ve been crying?” I put my hands on my hips. “Fine. I have.”

“Stuff with Jace?” Damn. Cera knows, of course, that only “stuff with Jace” could put me in this state. I’m a pretty “together” girl most of the time, but…Jace is my weak spot.

I fairly stomp over to the bar to help her set up. “Yeah. Stuff.”

She nods knowingly. “He’ll be back, you know.”

“I’m not sure he will,” I mutter bitterly, stacking up the shot glasses.

Cera stops me with a hand on my arm. When I look up, her reptilian eyes are kind. 

“Well, I’m sure, if that counts for anything,” she says gently.

I have to look away and focus on the glasses, or I’m going to start crying again. “Okay,” I murmur. “Okay.”

***

Jace

‘Cause wish I may, wish I might  
Catch you fallin’ through the night  
Well, even stars that fall down  
Well, they’re gone when they hit ground

I find myself standing in the middle of the compound, gasping for breath, panting, clutching my left arm with one hand. 

Shock number one, I’m alive.

Shock number two, the real shock: we did it. We pulled it off. The remaining Grojians have been shackled and are awaiting pickup by our employers; our medics are tending to the wounded. We actually pulled a victory out of that very-near-death situation. 

Micah walks over to me. He looks a wreck, half his fur caked with blood and dirt and the other half singed by blaster bolts, but he’s laughing hoarsely. “Damn, Taer,” he says. “What happened to you back there? One minute you’re ready to give up, the next, you - you freaking charged that commander and took down fifteen guys in the process!” He looks at me funny. “What happened in that crazy brain of yours?”

I give him a weary smile. “I remembered something important.”

He stares for a moment, then nods knowingly. “That is so completely vague that I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, deadpan. And then he’s laughing. “Jace, I knew you’d figure it out.”

“But I didn’t tell you - ”

“Ah, you don’t need to tell me. I know things.” Micah claps a hand to my shoulder. “Good job, merc. You’ll be getting double pay for this one.”

I raise my eyebrows but keep my mouth shut. I need the pay, actually. I’ve got a purchase to make.

One small, expensive purchase.

***

Anna

But to me you were always shining  
Like those silver-blue stars  
And I guess  
Some things stay more beautiful  
When you see them from that far

He shows up the next Wednesday and for a moment, I don’t recognize him. He’s not in his mercenary uniform; he’s actually wearing civilian clothes for once. His fur isn’t matted and scraggly - it actually looks like, my God, he brushed it? And…he’s holding a small bag.

But perhaps most visible is the lack of swagger, the lack of merc attitude. He doesn’t walk in like he owns the world and everyone in it. He’s just…Jace. The Jace I know behind closed doors. The gentle man nobody else gets to see, the self that Jace always seemed to save for me.

The Jace I fell in love with.

“I am not about to accept a simpering apology, Jace Taer,” I tell him, not making eye contact even when he sits right in front of me at the bar.

“I didn’t come to give one.”

I glance down at him. “Then why are you here?”

“I forgot to say something when I left last time.”

I put my hands on my hips. “What? That, oh by the way, you want all your stuff back? That I had better not call you? That you want my sister’s number?”

“Anna.” He reaches out and puts his hand over mine. “What I forgot to tell you…” He looks around the bar. “Can we go somewhere more private?”

I’m this close to just popping him in the jaw. “No. Whatever you have to say, you can damn well say it right here.” I slap the counter. “If you mean it, you won’t care who hears.”

“Well, if you insist…” He catches hold of my hand again and lovingly enfolds it in his own. “Anna…Anna, what I didn’t say was…”

“Spit it out, Taer, or I swear I’ll reach down and rip it out of your mouth.”

He cracks a nervous smile. “Anna. Let me speak.”

I swallow and nod. “All right.”

He squeezes my hand gently. “I love you, Anna.”

My eyes widen and my ears perk up, and suddenly I’m aware of the silence. The whole bar has gone quiet. I look around and feel color rise to my face as I realize that everyone is staring at us. 

He reaches into the bag and puts something in my open hand. “I think you know what this is.”

I look at my palm and - 

Oh my God.

It’s a ring.

I don’t even bother to look at it. I don’t care how many carats it is or how many denarii he spent on it. It doesn’t matter. It could be a trinket he won at poker for all I care. All that matters is the man holding my hand, and the sudden lift in my heart, and this moment and the promise it holds for us.

“Yes,” I breathe. 

He smirks. “I didn’t ask you.”

“You didn’t need to,” I say softly, and lean in to kiss him.

The whole bar erupts in cheers. Damn. I guess we attracted more attention than I’d thought. But really, the applause and whoops are just background noise to the best kiss I think I’ve ever had. This is how it’s meant to be. This is where we belong, Jace and me, together like this.

I hate to pull away, but we both have to breathe. Jace stares up at me in wonder. “I can’t believe you said yes,” he murmurs.

“Well, what the hell else would I say?” I ask, laughing.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know.” He takes the ring from me and slides it onto my finger - perfect fit. 

“How did you know - ”

Cera comes up behind me. “Sorry,” she said. “But if your man’s gonna call asking if I can find out your ring size, well, I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna do it.”

“Cera! You were in on this?”

She smirks. “You can thank me later.”

Someone comes by and buys us celebratory drinks. Then Jace buys a round for the whole bar. I raise my eyebrows and get to work taking orders. The whole night, his eyes are on me - those soft golden eyes, sometimes laughing, sometimes soft. 

There are going to be ups and downs; I know that for sure. Sometimes he’ll be gone, and sometimes I’ll be working till all hours and we’ll miss each other. Sometimes I’ll wonder if he’s dead. And yes, sometimes I’ll probably wonder why I said yes.

But I know in my heart that I’ll never regret this night, not as long as I live. 

As I serve the last of the round, Jace catches my eye and mouths something. Love you.

I smile back. “Love you too…scoundrel,” I say softly.

-fin-

**Author's Note:**

> Read and see more about Jace and Anna at: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/lonewolfsniper44/


End file.
